Some ex-scientologists told me about a relief and feeling of control after auditing, what is that on a technical level, placebo, temporary result?
I always thought this was a very insightful description on the introductory levels of Scientology, found in
1968's article by Ralph Lee Smith in Today's Health:
"In my visits to Scientology centers I encountered many enthusiastic persons who claimed that they had achieved fantastic progress in short periods of time through Scientology. They evinced total belief in the system. Their attitudes toward their auditors, toward persons running the Scientology centers, and above all, toward Ron Hubbard, bordered on reverence.
"Such attitudes are familiar to every psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. In the early stages of treatment, the patient usually regards his analyst as a paragon of wisdom and knowledge. He also experiences what he believes are sweeping "insight," and feels that he is making dramatic progress.
"One of the many fundamental differences between Scientology and psychotherapy is that a genuine therapist or analyst knows that these feelings are illusory, and that they must be transcended by the patient on his way to real emotional health. The analyst is not a god, a lawgiver, or a great discoverer, but a fallible human being. Genuine insight comes with painful slowness, and feelings of swift progress are nearly always a chimera.
"By contrast, Scientology keeps the patient in this illusory state and exploits it for profit. Instead of being totally free, a clear is a person who believes totally in Scientology and who totally reveres Ron Hubbard. The clear feels, with happy certainty, that he now relates to the world with complete success.
"But this view usually is not shared by the world. To his family and friends, the person who enters ever more deeply into Scientology seems to drift further and further from reality and to live more and more in the special in-group world that Scientology has created. Communication between converts and the rest of the world lapses and fails. The Scientologist believes that he is privy to exclusive truth, while everyone else suspects that he has gone over the deep edge."
Also John Ablett in 1988's
Scientology – what readers think,
"On trying Scientology counselling for the first time, you may well experience a feeling of insight, mild euphoria and the apparent resolution of some personal problem. If you were unaware that other techniques also offered similar experiences, you might believe the Church's claim that it alone had access to such methods. The supporting theories, as found in the writings of L Ron Hubbard, contain a profound mystical element and are couched in matter-of-fact technical jargon which makes them sound all the more plausible. And, after all, Hubbard himself was a nuclear physicist (wasn't he?).
"After your counselling session, you will be sent to an 'Examiner' who will confirm your new state of mind. At the end of a number of such sessions, a major insight may signal that you have achieved a particular 'grade' of existence. You will then declare this to the Examiner and be required to write a 'success story'. Afterwards you will receive a certificate along with the fulsome congratulations of other Scientologists.
"Still in your euphoric mood, you will be whisked away to the 'Registrar' who has instructions not to let you go until you have signed up for the next period of counselling or for a training course. It doesn't matter about the money. You will find it somehow. If you really can't find it, you can always sign a contract to join the Church staff. You will then live on a pittance and work every hour that God sends. But what is more important than your spiritual freedom? It is not only this lifetime but your infinite future which is at stake. And only the Church holds the key."
